R.I.P. my snake buttercup. She was my first snake and lived a long and wonderful life. She got to visit almost every place in my city, even got to visit my school. I loved her, she dies from a disease or something. She ate so good up to the week before her death. I will always remember her. She was so chunky, cute, explorative, and she was so precious. I wish she was still here. I wish I would’ve had more time with her. But she knew for a week that she was dying. She hid under her water bowl to hide it, she even tried to act okay. Before dying completely she looked up at me and flicked her tongue like she always did. I hope she’s happy in the afterlife. I loved and still love her, may she rest in peace. (she was a pastel butter ghost ball python)
(Don't mind the person in the back its my sis.)
Buttercup
(March 2024- November 2024)
May her memory last forever
She died knowing everyone loved her.
I am so sorry for your loss, it really is hard losing a pet.
However, I do need to point out that eight months is not a long life, the lifespan of captive ball pythons is 20-30 years with proper care. On top of that, if this is the same snake you mentioned having scale rot and not shedding back in October, you absolutely should not have been taking her everywhere.
I am sorry for your loss but I agree with @noodlehaus that 8 months is not a long life at all. Either we don’t know the whole story or something is not adding up here……
I am sorry for your loss. However, I’m also going to agree with @noodlehaus and @caron . Eight months is not at all a long time for a ball python, and if she did have scale rot and shedding problems, you should have taken her to your local vet, and kept her in a safe and quarantined space while she wasn’t feeling well. Just some tips if this ever happens again. That being said, a pet has still passed so I don’t want to push on too much criticism, R.I.P Buttercup.
I figured out I bought a snake with a disease. It spread to her. And the disease actually causes them to not be able to shed good, eat good, and some other things that it causes. If I noticed it sooner (I wish I did) maybe she would’ve stayed alive.
IDB. I bought a new snake and turns out he had IDB which is a disease that is deadly to certain snakes. The disease is airborn, and it spread to her. The snake I bought, he fought it since we got him, but the disease took them both. I wish i saw the signs and knew that this disease existed. But to anyone who does have any type of snake watch for IDB
Hopefully if you try again, you can acquire the snake from a reputable breeder. And now that you know more about IBD and its contagiousness, you’ll want to limit where you take the snake. Good luck.
That’s interesting that she was chunky and eating well as IBD decreases a snake’s appetite and can cause regurgitation. It is a very debilitating disease.
Since there are no reptile vets available to you in your area I would recommend that you choose another type of pet for which you would have access to a vet in the event that you would need one. It is very unfortunate that this has happened to you and to Buttercup. Sometimes people don’t realize how important it is to have an available veterinarian contact in the event of illness in a beloved animal……
I’m going to preface this by saying I understand you’re young and that you just lost a beloved pet, so I am not trying to be a jerk here, but I need to clear some things up because this is a teaching moment. Please understand that this is not blaming, it is pointing out where mistakes were made. You’re still learning, let this be something to build on.
You didn’t buy a snake with a disease, most likely. You said she was your first snake and you got a second three weeks later. Her symptoms were inconsistent with IBD and she was never tested. She also never saw a vet despite you admitting she was unwell. You took her on field trips, which a. is not something you do with snakes, these aren’t dogs and they don’t need to go places with you, and b. she should have still been in quarantine. She very likely died of improper care, plain and simple.
To recap, you posted September 20th that you’d gotten her the previous Saturday. You got her for your birthday from someone who got her from a friend. The original person had purchased her from an expo but wasn’t allowed to keep her because their parents said no. That’s a lot of bad decisions and mishandling from children already before she even got to you. In your first posts, you also mentioned you’d been handling her 2x a day already, meaning she had no time to settle into her surroundings and acclimate.
You then posted a mere nine days later (September 29th) that you got another snake from an expo, when you still were asking help/advice on caring for your first. I’m guessing you didn’t quarantine that animal, and you mentioned problems with feeding on that one. Your next thread about Buttercup was October 9th where you said she arrived in shed and hadn’t yet, despite it having been three weeks. This is abnormal, and you also mention she had scale rot in your post and that you “got rid of it” but in this post mention she never saw a vet.
All the signs point to the fact that this snake was mishandled and unwell from the time you got it, and then continued to be inadequately cared for with you which likely pushed her system over the edge. There is every chance her death was preventable had she seen a vet, and been appropriately quarantined and treated. I’m not sure how old you are, but your parents should have been helping and overseeing your care of your pets. If you plan to keep reptiles in the future as someone inexperienced, you absolutely need to have an available vet, period. You can use the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians Find A Vet if you need to find one in your area.
@deanaii There’s no evidence this snake had IBD before it passed, it was never tested and never saw a vet. On top of that, IBD would not be a, “limit where you take them”, it would be a permanent quarantine if asymptomatic and likely euthanasia with symptoms. It’s transmissible, progressive, and ultimately fatal.
I absolutely agree with everything said by @noodlehaus
Sadly, there are many things that have been red flags in your posts. 8 months is short for a ball python that typically can live to 20+ years, my first is 24 right now. I understand blaming a disease is an easier thing to do than admit you were wrong, but this is absolutely not the case. Especially when saying buttercup was doing well until a week ago but now saying she had IBD (not IDB) without having a Necropsy or testing done.
@caron brings up a good point. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a good vet, you may not be able to care for reptiles until you find one. When they do show signs of being sick it is extremely important to take care of them ASAP because they hide symptoms very well until they no longer can.
If you do believe that you did have snakes with IBD, you cannot have another for a while. The disease can remain in areas the snakes have touched for a long time. And if you were handling them a lot that means all over your house. You would also need to sterilize all of the habitats before having more snakes. This means throwing away anything that isn’t a smooth plastic or metal and using a strong bleach solution to soak the smooth stuff and the cage.
I don’t know what the circumstances were for your second snake passing, but I am sorry that you had this experience. It’s always sad to loose a pet. I hope you can have better luck in the future with them.
It’s alright, no hard feelings. Having a pet pass is just terrible, and I’m sorry for your loss. Next time though, I would still recommend quarantining her and maybe do some googling on scale rot and other diseases in ball pythons, and maybe see if there’s something you can do. Again, so pressure, I just want to make sure if you ever get another snake that it hopefully doesn’t pass like Buttercup did.
I honestly agree with this. I’m trying not to put too much criticism, and this person probably was just misinformed, but pretty much everything that happened before and in between the months that they got Buttercup was a red flag. Anyway, I’m glad @noodlehaus could summarize it so that I didn’t have to. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
After going on here to ask about handling I stopped handling her and put all my animals on a very strict schedule. Which was Handling on Thursdays only, feeding on Fridays, and then very rarely soaking them to help with shed. But I will take note of what u said.
I’m sorry for your loss.
